


Linger 'Til Dawn

by PorcupineGirl



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Castiel Is So Done, Dean Has Self-Esteem Issues, Fluff, Lucid Dreaming, M/M, Post-Episode: s10e20 Angel Heart, Season/Series 10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 08:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3889495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PorcupineGirl/pseuds/PorcupineGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Sometimes Cas is hungry, sometimes he's not, but he never makes it to breakfast. Not in this dream. Not if Dean has any say in it, at least.</i>
</p><p>Dean often dreams about Cas, that's nothing new. What's new is dreaming about <i>two</i> Castiels at once.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Linger 'Til Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> Written between 10x20 and 10x21, ignore any post-10x20 canon.
> 
> Title is from [Dream a Little Dream of Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC4cXzvXSq4).
> 
> I read a bunch of really angsty djinn dream fics, and felt compelled to write the fluffiest dream fic I possibly could.

Dean runs his hand over the empty pillow next to him. It's still warm. He gets up and pads barefoot to his bedroom door, and then he's entering the kitchen. He smiles as he looks at Cas, wearing Dean's old t-shirt and a pair of god-awful ugly green sweatpants he insisted on buying at a thrift store, his hair rumpled with sleep, pushing buttons on the coffee maker.

Dean slips up behind him and wraps his arms around his waist, leaning in to press kisses to the side of Cas's neck. Cas makes a low noise that Dean thinks would have been a purr if humans could purr and rubs his cheek against Dean's, their stubble catching against each other. Cas turns around in Dean's arms and they share a soft and slow good morning kiss.

"Hate wakin' up alone." Dean does his best to grumble, even though he's already smiling.

"I woke up an hour ago and just got up less than five minutes ago," Cas replies, "I'm sorry Dean, I love watching you sleep but I can only do it for so long."

"Once upon a time you'd do that all night."

"I didn't require breakfast back then." He slides his hands around the back of Dean's neck and presses another gentle kiss to his mouth. "And I would have kept doing it this morning if my stomach hadn't intervened."

Over Cas's shoulder, Dean sees two bowls of cereal on the counter he hadn't noticed before. They don't matter. Sometimes Cas is hungry, sometimes he's not, but he never makes it to breakfast. Not in this dream. Not if Dean has any say in it, at least. Maybe when Dean gets woken up in the middle of the dream, Dream Cas wanders off and eats something.

He pulls Cas back in for another kiss, and this time it quickly becomes heated. Dean throws his head back as Cas's mouth moves down to his throat, and he runs his hands up under Cas's (well, his) t-shirt. He can already feel Cas getting hard through the sweat pants, and he's pretty sure that before long he'll blink and they'll be on his bed naked.

He's wrong.

"Dean?"

He's startled to hear Cas's voice behind him. That's different. He turns around to see a clearly angelic Cas standing behind him, looking confused. When Dean has moved enough that Angel Cas can see Human Cas's face, Angel Cas's eyes widen.

"Oh," Angel Cas breathes. Dean smirks.

"Well this is new." Dean keeps an arm around Human Cas's waist as he openly checks out Angel Cas. Based on the hair, he thinks it's a recent version—which is good, because if the Cas he first met showed up it would probably be to cock block him. "Never got to have an angelic threesome before. Nice. I'm gettin' creative." He holds a hand up to check something he thought he could feel. "That's new, too." He checks Human Cas's left hand and finds the same ring. The smile Human Cas gives him when he does would make his heart do funny things if it were real. "Huh. Apparently I installed some kinda upgrade to this dream. Awesome!"

"You—you're aware this is a dream?" Angel Cas isn't looking at Dean's face as he speaks, but at the ring.

Dean snorts. "Of course it's a friggin' dream, like you'd let me do this shit in real life. I'm not an idiot, Cas. I'm making out with you, I'm fuckin' _married_ to you apparently—clearly not awake, dude. But hey, doesn't mean we can't all have some fun, right?"

Human Cas is squinting at Angel Cas, but when he speaks it's clearly addressed to Dean. "Since it's a dream, you can get all those layers off him in an instant, right? I don't want them slowing us down in case you're going to wake up soon."

Dean pulls Human Cas close. "Don't worry, baby, I don't wanna wait any longer than I have to to get myself in the middle of a Castiel sandwich." He goes back to kissing Human Cas, reaching down to palm the erection growing in the sweat pants and drawing a moan out of him. Dean starts to think they should really get to the magically-appearing-naked-in-bed part when Angel Cas interrupts.

"You like this dream." Something about his tone makes Dean look his way. He sounds like he's just solved an impossible puzzle to open a door, and is in awe of what is on the other side. And he's looking at Dean like Dean is what's on the other side. "You want this."

"Hell yeah I do," Dean's voice takes on a seductive edge as he moves away from Human Cas and slides an arm around Angel Cas's waist. Generally in his dreams, he and Cas are already together. He doesn't often get to start fresh with a confused angel who's never kissed him before. He's excited to give it a try. It's not like his dreams of Cas have been getting old or stale, but he's pretty damn pleased that his brain is mixing it up a little anyhow.

Dean presses in against Angel Cas and slides his other hand into the hair at the back of his neck. He starts with a careful, soft kiss, and feels Angel Cas relax in his arms. He's thankful that his brain hadn't decided to deliver a _realistic_ Cas who would stiffen and pull away, traitorously twisting the one good dream he ever has these days into a mocking nightmare.

As he kisses Angel Cas again, pressing their mouths open to feel the warm slide of their tongues, Angel Cas finally raises his hands up and slides them into Dean's hair. Then suddenly Angel Cas is pressing into _him_ , kissing him harder and hungrier, backing him into the countertop. Angel Cas, as it turns out, is a _really fucking good kisser_.

Really… really good.

Dean breaks away, panting. "Holy shit," is all he can get out at first.

" _Dean_." Angel Cas's voice is a broken growl. He kisses Dean again, but after a moment Dean pulls back just enough to get a few words in.

"This feels different," he murmurs into the kiss, and he can't quite place it. Something is different. He knows in the back of his head, _somewhere_ he understands why this is different.

A moment later it hits him, and he freezes. _Oh god_. _No no no_.

Angel Cas… _Cas_ doesn't pull away when Dean freezes up. Instead, he moves his arms down to wrap tightly around Dean's waist and buries his face in Dean's neck. Which… Dean is confused. He snatches his hands back from where they were wound around Cas and moves them back to brace himself against the counter.

"You're—" Dean swallows down the terror that tries to eat his voice. "You're not a dream."

Cas shakes his head, still pressed into the dip where Dean's neck connects to his shoulder. And holds Dean tighter. Dean is still frozen, as though his brain is convinced that if he never moves, he'll never have to deal with this.

"No." Cas finally lifts his head, leaning his forehead against Dean's. Dean can't bear to open his eyes. "None of this has to be a dream, Dean."

Dean doesn't know what to make of that. So he just doesn't.

"So, what, is this a djinn dream? You come to tell me to kill myself? Or did you just feel like dropping in and picked the wrong night to do it?" He tries to keep his voice neutral, matter-of-fact. He pretends he can't hear the slight tremble in it.

He feels Cas's knuckles brush gently against his cheek, and wishes to god that Cas would stop being so damn _gentle_ with him. Being let down easy has never been Dean's thing. He's much more a rip-the-bandaid-off type.

"Dean." Cas's voice is nearly a whisper, and Dean can feel his forehead wrinkling in confusion against his own. "If you were captured by a djinn, you believe it would give you a dream similar to this?"

Dean finally can't handle this anymore. He turns away from Cas's face just to get some fucking _air_. Opens his eyes but keeps them focused down on his hand against the counter, trying to ignore how Cas's body is still pressed against his.

"Fuck, I am so sorry, Cas. This is totally inappropriate. I got no excuse for any of this." He has no idea what he could possibly say to make this better. Nothing can possibly make this better. His regular wet dream has become his _worst fucking nightmare_.

He can see Castiel's head tilt in his peripheral vision. Neither of them says anything for a long moment, and when Cas speaks again it's in slow, measured words.

"Which part of me kissing you back did you not understand?"

Dean freezes again, and this time it feels like his _entire body_ freezes - heart; lungs; hell, his stomach probably stops digesting food for a few seconds.

" _What?_ " The word is out of his mouth before he can help it, and he immediately wishes he could take it back and say something less… stupid. But he finally risks a look at Cas. Cas looks unimpressed.

"I realize I am not as sexually experienced as you, but I am quite certain that my response was enthusiastic enough to communicate the fact that—" Dean hears his breath hitch slightly, even though he knows that Cas doesn't actually _need_ to breathe. Maybe getting emotional fucks with… whatever that is. "I want this, too, Dean."

Dean realizes immediately that one of two things is happening: either real Cas is really here and really kissed him and really knows that Dean fantasizes not only about having sex with him (two of him, even) but also goopy romantic shit like _fucking marrying him_ but is, despite all odds, really on board with all of it… or it's all just still part of the dream. He's not even sure which he _hopes_ is true—one would be a little heartbreaking, the other a little terrifying. Either way, though, he's kind of got a free pass right now, and he might as well use it.

So he brings his hands up to slide carefully up Cas's jawline until he's cradling Cas's face, leans in, and kisses him gently. And if this is just a dream, it's not the same kind of dream anymore, so his kiss isn't hot and demanding. It's slow, and warm, and loving, and everything he wants to give to Cas if this _is_ real. And Cas, whatever Cas this is, gives it all right back.

The kiss is just starting to deepen when Dean hears movement next to him. He pulls back a little and realizes that Human Cas is still standing there, scowling at them. _Weird-ass fuckin' dream this is_ , he thinks.

"Get rid of him," Cas growls, and a grin spreads over Dean's face.

"Who, him? You mean you? He's just you, y'know," Dean teases.

"I'm standing right here," Human Cas grouses, prompting Cas to _actually_ growl at him. Which is all kinds of hot.

"God damn, Cas," Dean murmurs. He blinks and Human Cas is gone. "I think I like this possessive thing you got going on."

Cas turns back to him, eyes flashing, and presses his body back into Dean's so that Dean can feel every inch of him.

"I came here to wake you up." Cas's voice hasn't lost that edge; he sounds like he's seconds away from tearing Dean's clothes off and Dean wishes he just would instead of talking more. "The sooner you wake up, the sooner we can do this for real."

Dean starts to think that no way does he want to wake up if there's any chance this won't still be real when he does—but then his brain catches up with what's going on.

"Wait—why did you have to come into my _dream_ to wake me up? Will an alarm clock or a good ol' punch in the arm not do it? Am I asleep, or in a freaking coma?"

Cas sighs. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Now that is a good question. Dean closes his eyes and tries to ignore the insistent heat of Castiel's body against his, begging him to rub against it, while he thinks.

"Uh, we—me and Sam were in some abandoned building. A distillery? And Rowena was there?" His eyes fly open. "Wait, _fuck_. I remember now. Sam had that fucking Book of the Damned I thought he burned, and he had Rowena and he was fucking _working with that bitch_. And he thought she was gonna help him decode it to get rid of the Mark, but obviously she didn't and she tried to use some kind of spell on me but he… Sam used some kind of, I dunno, counter-spell? Or something?" He looks at Cas helplessly, because this is where his memories end.

"Yes, that's most of it." Cas looks as annoyed as Dean is at Sam's behavior. "Apparently Rowena tried to hex you, Sam performed a counter-hex but was only able to soften the hex from killing you to putting you to sleep. You've been out for a few hours already and Sam hasn't been able to wake you himself, so he called me and asked me to try this. If this doesn't work, hopefully as soon as I can get to you in person I can heal you and fix it."

Dean wonders, if this Cas isn't real and his mind is just making that stuff up, how close it is to the truth. He leans forward and kisses Cas again, because he can and it feels better than thinking about his brother and whatever the fuck he thought he was up to with Rowena. It feels better than most things, in fact. Castiel clearly agrees, and their bodies start to move against each other.

"This isn't exactly making me want to wake up," he pants as Cas mouths along his throat. Cas pauses.

"It will be so much better in the real world, Dean," Cas murmurs into his skin.

Dean huffs. "Yeah, I bet. But only if you're really not a dream, and I gotta tell ya, I'm only about five percent convinced of that."

Cas lifts his head to frown at Dean. "I don't understand. I am real, Dean. You seemed to believe me before."

"Well, yeah," Dean says, as though this should be obvious, "until you started acting like the Cas in my dreams instead of the Cas in real life."

"Might I remind you that I was kissing you—very enthusiastically, I might add—when you first realized that I didn't feel like a dream." There's a dangerous edge to Cas's voice. Not the possessive one from before; it doesn't turn Dean on so much as makes him want to shrink and apologize.

Instead, he snorts. "Yeah, that's just what my brain would say if it were trying to convince me that a dream was real."

Cas growls in frustration, and again it has a very different effect on Dean than his previous growl had had. Cas holds Dean's shoulders at arm's length.

" _Wake up,_ Dean," he snarls. And then he's gone.

Dean gasps, startled. He looks around the empty kitchen, suddenly profoundly lonely for someone who's been inside his own dream this entire time. He considers conjuring another Dream Cas, but figures instead he might as well take a chance and—

Dean's eyes snap open as he draws in a sudden breath. He's in a different room of the distillery than he remembers being in before he fell asleep, and Sam and Rowena are nowhere in sight.

"Sam?" he calls. He hears a shuffling from the next room and jumps to his feet, ready to attack if it's Rowena. But a second later his brother's face appears in the doorway.

"Dean!" Sam rushes in and grabs him, inspecting him like you would a concussion patient. "Thank god, Dean. Jesus, I'm so fucking sorry, I had no idea—"

"You had no idea that the _incredibly powerful witch whose son is the King of Hell_ might stab you in the back and try to kill me?" Dean momentarily forgets all about Cas in his fury, because his brother might be a bit shortsighted sometimes but he's not fucking _stupid_.

"Of course I knew she might—she'd _definitely_ do that," Sam snaps. Then his voice goes a bit softer as he looks abashed. "I just assumed she'd at least wait until after I killed Crowley for her. I don't know how she thought she was going to get me to do that if she killed you first."

"You—you agreed to kill Crowley? For Rowena? So she'd help you?" Dean has pretty much had it up to fucking here with new information for today. Which reminds him. Cas. Dean clenches his jaw.

"It's Crowley, Dean, we should have killed him years ago. We should still kill him, when all this is over." Sam glowers and Dean tries not to think about Cain's predictions. Sam's phone rings and he pulls it out, looks at the screen.

"It's Cas. Oh yeah, did he get through to you? Is that how you woke up?" Sam is already answering the phone before Dean can say anything. Which is just as well, because Dean's mouth goes so dry that he isn't sure he can speak.

"Yeah, he's fine, thanks, man," Sam is saying into the phone. Then he holds it out to Dean. "He wants to talk to you."

Dean nods and takes the phone, then wanders away as he puts it up to his ear and tries to find his voice.

"Hey, Cas." It comes out in a rasp, but it comes out.

He hears Cas sigh with relief. "Dean, good. You woke up. I'm… sorry I left you like that. That was irresponsible. I should have stayed with you until you woke up."

Dean suddenly sits down on whatever the hell is nearby and about sitting height, because the implication that Cas remembers what happened in his dream has caused his knees to walk out on the job.

"Yeah," he barely manages to get out, "yeah, I'm okay. Thanks, for, um. For coming to get me."

There's a pause on the other end of the line.

"Do you remember your dream, Dean? What happened?"

"Um. Yeah. I mean… I think so." Dean's heart is racing and he feels a little dizzy. He's worried that maybe what he remembers isn't what really happened. Maybe his mind is just playing tricks, telling him what he wants to hear.

"I told you it was real, Dean. Do you believe me now?" Cas isn't laughing, but there's the ghost of a fond chuckle in his voice.

"Maybe," Dean says. He can't fight the grin spreading across his face, but the wave of relief that crashes over him also doesn't do anything to help the dizziness. "Tell me face to face and I'll believe it." There may or may not be a thread of flirtation in his voice when he says it.

"I'm about eight hours from Lebanon," Cas says, "I'll meet you there?"

"Yeah, hang on." Dean puts his hand over the phone. "Sammy? Where the hell are we? How far from the bunker?"

Sam pokes his head into the room Dean wandered into. "Took about ten to get here."

"Thanks." He gets back on the phone. "We can be there in ten."

"I'll wait for you," Cas says softly, and hangs up.

—

The next time Dean wakes up, everything has changed.

He slides his hand down Castiel's warm, smooth back, his sheets tangled around their bare legs. When he opens his eyes he sees that Cas is, of course, watching him. Creepy sleepless fucker. Dean smiles. _His_ creepy sleepless fucker.

"How long was I out?" Dean's back is to the clock. Cas glances at it.

"Only an hour or so." His hands are starting to wander over Dean's body.

"Middle of the afternoon, good time for a little nap." He catches Cas's mouth in his, and they make out lazily for a few minutes.

Cas pulls back just a bit. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what's up?" Dean hasn't felt this relaxed in years. Maybe never. He knows his entire life may well implode at any minute, but even getting exactly what he wants for one day is more than he ever expected. Right now, he'll tell Cas anything he wants to know, even the sappy, embarrassing shit. They've already said some pretty sappy shit today anyhow.

"Why was I human in the dream? Would you rather I were human?"

"No! No, 'course not." Dean's frown softens as he runs his fingers over Cas's face. "I am, like, crazy, stupid, girly, chick-flick levels of in love with you, Cas. Mojo or not, I don't care. I will never care." He sighs. "I think—look, dreams don't exactly come with a label, right? Explaining everything. But I guess—yeah, you're almost always human in my dreams. And I guess it's because… y'know…" He feels a little ridiculous now, given their current position, and can't quite look Cas in the eye. "Even my subconscious couldn't imagine you wanting to be with me while you're an angel."

And Cas pushes right in, latches his mouth onto Dean's neck, and _jesus_ everything feels eighty-five times better than Dean ever imagined it could.

"Do you think it's convinced yet?" Cas mumbles in between open-mouthed kisses as he pushes Dean down onto his back.

"Dunno," Dean groans, sliding a leg around Cas's hips and his hands down to Cas's ass. "Better safe than sorry."

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, now I promise I will not post anything else until I get Ch 3 of The Breath Before the Phrase up.
> 
>  
> 
> [My tumblr](http://porcupine-girl.tumblr.com)


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